Wine lovers may pay more attention to variety, vintage and what color goes with which dish, but some are also giving more thought to where and how the grapes were grown. Sustainable agriculture doesn’t have a fixed definition in the way “organic” has had since federal organic standards were finalized in 2000, but a growing number of consumers are seeking sustainably produced wine, and third-party certification programs are infusing the term with more meaning.…

Wine lovers may pay more attention to variety, vintage and what color goes with which dish, but some are also giving more thought to where and how the grapes were grown. Sustainable agriculture doesn’t have a fixed definition in the way “organic” has had since federal organic standards were finalized in 2000, but a growing number of consumers are seeking sustainably produced wine, and third-party certification programs are infusing the term with more meaning.

“There are some other agricultural sectors that have developed programs, like the Almond Board in California, for example, but I think for wine some it stems all the way back to prohibition,” she said. “The trade association goes back over 85 years, and there’s just the understanding that on certain issues, we really need to cooperate as much as possible. When it comes to best practices, there’s a long history of being willing to share information.”

Unlike organic which can typically command a premium at retailers and restaurants, sustainable certification isn’t giving producers stronger pricing power. A number of wineries are now paying certified growers a bonus, said Lodi Winegrape Commission Program Director Stuart Spencer, but that hasn’t necessarily translated into higher prices for the wine.

Just as wines in general run the gamut from cheap to ultra-pricey, sustainable wines can be found at all the price points, said Jordan.

“It’s not necessarily the same in the case of organic wine or wine made with organically grown grapes,” Spencer said. “With sustainable, it’s not clear yet whether people will be able to pay more.”

That said, growers and producers still see financial benefits from sustainable production, in the form of cost savings and enhanced reputation.

“Sustainability is part of your story, it can help build brand allegiance,” Spencer said. “At the trade level, it can help open doors for you. Many restaurants and retailers are more concerned with the products they’re carrying and selling, and that can help create business opportunities. But in many cases, too, for larger companies, sustainability is more a risk-management tool. They’re more worried about the downside of not being conscious of these issues.”

In the U.S., sustainable wine certification efforts began in California.

“We started our program back around 1991, when our organization was first started,” said Spencer. “At the time, it began as an integrated pest management program, and over the years, that evolved into a pretty comprehensive program. Around 2000, we did a self-assessment workbook and let growers score themselves.”

In 2005, the commission launched the state’s first third-party sustainable certification for vineyards and wineries. The focus is on balancing the environment, the employees and the economics of the operation, he said.

“I think in Lodi in particular, there’s a sense of community that’s greater than in other parts of California, so we have been able to accomplish a lot. A lot of our farming families are fourth and fifth generation, so there’s a kind of long-term outlook that helps with a program like this,” Spencer said.

About 100 sustainably certified Lodi growers were farming about 21,000 acres as of last year, according to Spencer. The program includes about 101 different standards, from pest control to water conservation to financial solvency. Each standard is evaluated and growers are qualify based on their total score along with whether they’ve stayed under a specified threshold for pesticide use over the course of the year.

“Our system is a scientific-based system that quantifies the pesticide use in the vineyard. There are five indices we looked at, including acute risk, chronic risk, avian risk, bees and aquatic life. Different pesticides rank higher or lower on the different indices, and a model was developed,” Spencer explained. “Wine grapes here in California are relatively benign when it comes to pesticides. The biggest impact comes from sulfur, which is organic and is used as a mildew control tool.”

Lodi’s program set an example for others, including the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.

Today, the Alliance has certified vineyards that grow grapes on about 17.5% of the state’s 570,000 wine-grape acres, and 87 wineries that produce nearly 66% of the 240 million cases of wine made in the state annually, said Executive Director Jordan. Between this program, Lodi’s program and other third-party certifications, about a quarter of the state’s wine grape growing acreage is certified sustainable, she said.

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]]>New data sources, along with artistic product descriptions and a lack of classification standards, have dumped a mound of valuable but hard to interpret data on our doorstep. Now what?

We at Food Genius see food and think data. No matter if we’re looking at a menu, a receipt or an elaborate product description from a supplier, we see food terminology and think data. For example, let’s look at three Thai/Asian salads: the Rad Thai Salad from SweetGreen, the Thai Chicken Salad from Panera, and the Premium Asian Salad with Crispy Chicken from McDonald’s. Salads are simple, right? Just greens, vegetables, a protein and dressing. Ah, but we all know life just isn’t that easy. The true insight is in the detail.

Between SweetGreen, Panera and McDonald’s, they have more than 30 distinct salads on their core menus. To even begin understanding this from a data standpoint, we need to cluster (or what Food Genius calls “normalize”) them by type. In our case, the type is Thai/Asian salads.

Now that we have clustered these salads together, we can organize the data. We took a simple approach and focused on ingredient type and we didn’t concern ourselves with preparation methods, health-claims or sensory terms (all of which are important but add complexity).

You could keep nuancing this example but even at this level of interpretation, insights start to surface. For instance:

Key in on a few of the primary attributes of a salad: greens, vegetables, protein. You’ll immediately notice that Panera and McDonald’s are closely aligned, far more than SweetGreen and Panera.

You’ll notice that nuts and seeds are a standard of identity for this salad type, either as a topping or as a dressing flavor.

These types of analyses are nothing new. For decades, the approach in gathering this data was to send people running around the country collecting menus. They would then hand-enter the menu data based on some predetermined classification methodology. This method, besides being tedious from a resource standpoint, also leaves you with little control over the data. What if you (a supplier, distributor or operator):

Don’t want to look at 5,000 menus but instead 50,000. And you don’t want to see them once a year, but every month?

Need to understand POS or receipt data from multiple different sources that have different naming and abbreviation conventions?

Have decided to tackle the herculean effort of adopting a new product classification system and need to test and iterate possible structures?

As foodservice has become more complex and data continues to become more available, a dynamic (technology-driven) approach to making sense of food data is necessary.

Food Genius’s approach is to utilize cloud computing and machine learning algorithms to deliver highly scalable and flexible data-driven business tools. As much as our technology, it’s our methodology for cleaning up the messiness of food data that is at our core. We normalize, organize and classify.

(Photos: Food Genius)

Normalize – Normalization is grouping. The best way to group is with a bottoms-up approach. Using our salad example, Food Genius begins normalizing by analyzing ingredients and identifying patterns within the ingredients. The common ingredients we’re looking at in our case are greens, toppings and a dressing. So now, we’ve programmed our algorithms to understand we’re looking at salads. We see that the toppings themselves and flavor profile of the dressing are characteristic of an Asian or Thai salad. The saying “Show me, don’t tell me” is brought to mind. Don’t tell me the name of an item, show me what’s in it. Then I can tell you what it is.

Organize – As items are normalized, we know we’re looking at all the same ‘types’ of salads, so the organization of the data for these items becomes apparent. In our example, we see two of the three salads have an herb ingredient and all three have a protein. This is fairly easy for the human eye to pick up when looking at three menu items but keep in mind that in the U.S. alone, we have over one million eating establishments that represent tens of millions unique menu items.

Classify – Through normalization and organization we have a solid foundation. With classification, we build it up. A classification system, specifically a hierarchical classification system, is what gives the once unstructured data structure. Referencing back to our example, these will be the row headers. A comprehensive classification system is what allows Food Genius to query the data for all salads containing an Asian flavored dressing or all salads that include nut toppings. Accurate classification goes a long way in taking you from data to insight.

Food Genius cut its teeth in working with restaurant menu data and it’s still a very critical data set for the foodservice industry to understand. However, what we see in the not too distant future is a tremendous amount of new data becoming available: customer data. With the proliferation of restaurant technologies, from guest analytics to online delivery services, data is now being generated that was previously unobtainable.

Jason Felger is CEO of Food Genius.

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Consumers who think nothing of ordering their books, clothes and shoes online still often balk when it comes to buying their groceries anywhere but the store. The costs and the logistics involved in delivering perishable consumables has kept the food and beverage sector lagging other e-commerce efforts, but flexibility, personalization and omnichannel strategies are helping grocers catch up.…

Consumers who think nothing of ordering their books, clothes and shoes online still often balk when it comes to buying their groceries anywhere but the store. The costs and the logistics involved in delivering perishable consumables has kept the food and beverage sector lagging other e-commerce efforts, but flexibility, personalization and omnichannel strategies are helping grocers catch up.

Only about 1% of all U.S. consumers do their grocery shopping online, but online grocery sales are forecast to grow at a 21.1% compound annual growth rate between 2013 and 2018, to nearly $18 billion, while traditional grocery sales are expected to grow only 3.1% annually during the same period, according to Business Insider Intelligence.

In the U.S., grocery e-commerce is working best in high-density urban areas where it’s more cost-effective than in sprawling suburbs or sparsely populated rural areas, said Rahul Bindish, vice president of sales for Grid Dynamics.

“A lot of it is trial and error,” he said.

One thing grocers are discovering is that, unlike traditional e-commerce, there need to be more flexible options when it comes to food sales, including click-and-collect programs.

“Omnichannel initiatives, where you can actually have a consistent experience across channels, are changing the game for grocers in the U.S.,” he said.

In-store pickup can eliminate the need to wait around for deliveries during a specific pickup window or the risk of having fresh food sitting outside the front door waiting for the customer to get home, he said.

That kind of flexibility is key in today’s competitive grocery landscape, said Unata CEO Chris Bryson.

“The modern consumer expects that today they can shop in the store, tomorrow they can shop online, then they can order online and pick up in the store. There’s a huge move in the direction of flexibility. The shopping experience of the future is allowing shoppers to shop any way they want,” Bryson said.

Bindish agrees.

“Grocers are saying ‘How can I extend the shopping experience beyond my store, to online and mobile, so my customers have a consistent experience across these channels,” Bindish said.

Another difference when it comes to groceries is that consumers buy many of the same items on a regular basis, a challenge that’s also an opportunity for retailers looking to personalize the experience based on the customer’s shopping history, Bryson said.

“I think the retailers that are seeing the most success in the category are making sure the experience is rooted in personalization. They’re leveraging the data to make the checkout process easier, and more and more they’re putting a premium on the user experience and high-quality design,” he said.

Design and organization is especially key in food retail, where stores typically stock between 50,000 and 100,000 different items, Bryson said, and it takes on even more significance as consumers do more and more of their shopping on smaller screens.

“The modern consumer is so time-starved and has such high expectations for mobile, they expect it to be fluid and easy to use,” he said.

Mobile also offers more opportunities for personalization, including creating digital shopping lists that consumers can take to the store, and using those lists to target coupons and promotions, said Grid Dynamics’ Bindish. “For example, if you know I buy 2% organic milk every week and you have a special on that, that should be on top of the list,” he said.

Retailers can also recommend new products based on the purchases of other shoppers with similar lists, he said.

The demand for an omnichannel experience gives brick-and-mortar supermarket chains an advantage over pure-play online retailers and marketplaces breaking into the grocery business.

“If you see some of the new entrants into this marketplace, like Google and Amazon, they’ve not expanded significantly beyond the pilot areas they’ve selected,” Bindish said. “Instacart and Amazon Fresh, they do fresh produce delivery. For them, the model works in urban areas. Markets like San Francisco can be very successful, there’s a high concentration of people who order small basket sizes and get one or two deliveries a week.”

Amazon has been a leader in developing the technology that’s fueling growth in grocery e-commerce, and newer players like Instacart take a new tack when it comes to flexibilty — with an Uber-like business model, Instacart sends shoppers out to participating local grocery stores, filling and delivering orders within an hour in some markets.

It’s too soon to know how big Instacart will grow, Bryson said.

“It’s early days so it’s hard for us to say,” he said. “We haven’t seen any public results. It offers more choice to the consumer. It’s funny how some retailers will have an Instacart experience and also support their own e-commerce experience, or a click-and-collect program. There’s more options, more choice for the consumer.”

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From big chains like Peet’s and Starbucks to smaller regional players like D.C.’s Dolcezza, coffee makers are helping customers cool off with cold brew iced coffee this summer. Although cold brew coffee isn’t a new concept, it’s a market trend that is getting a lot of attention and gaining in popularity — and it seems to be a trend that could stick.…

From big chains like Peet’s and Starbucks to smaller regional players like D.C.’s Dolcezza, coffee makers are helping customers cool off with cold brew iced coffee this summer. Although cold brew coffee isn’t a new concept, it’s a market trend that is getting a lot of attention and gaining in popularity — and it seems to be a trend that could stick.

Cold brew coffee is different from traditional iced coffee in that it is made with cool water, rather than by brewing hot coffee and pouring it over ice to cool it off, and making cold brew coffee is a much more labor-intensive process. In fact, Tech Times reported that it took Starbucks two years to come up with a satisfactory process for making the cold brew coffee that the chain will start serving at all of its locations in North America.

For Brett Holmes, a partner of cold brew coffee maker Strother’s Brewed Cold, the new-found cold brew coffee craze has been a long time coming. Strother’s has been working with cold brew coffee for decades, and according to Holmes, the market has been “long overdue” for cold brew coffee products.

“Cold brewed coffee creates a flavor and taste that mainstream consumers are only now starting to understand, appreciate and embrace — whether served steaming hot or iced cold. And people love it,” he said.

Strother’s produces Coffee Juice, a ready-to-drink beverage that infuses cold brew coffee, roasted chicory root and juiced blueberries. And the company will unveil Coffee Juice X later this year, a bottled triple-strength cold brewed coffee extract that is made with a 50-year-old family recipe.

“We’re…confident that anyone who loves freshly made cold brewed coffee, served straight up or diluted with water or milk, will absolutely love this stuff,” Holmes said of Coffee Juice X.

Holmes’ instincts appear to be spot-on, with more than 40% of American adults consuming coffee on any given day, according to a recent report from Datassential. According to the report, brewed coffee is the most-consumed beverage after tap water, with specialty and iced coffees continuing to gain in popularity.

Cold brew coffee, in particular, is rapidly making its way onto more menus, the report found, with other iced coffees varieties like Thai iced coffee and green coffee following closely behind.

“Iced coffee, which is not as widely offered as hot brewed coffee, is also a varied category that can offer operators check-boosting opportunities,” the report said.

A big part of the appeal of cold brew coffee is the taste, according to the Tech Times piece. While traditional iced coffees often have a bitter flavor profile, cold brew coffee is smooth with a chocolate flavor.

“Iced coffee and espresso beverages have a stronger, roastier flavor with a bit of nuttiness that comes from brewing with hot water. Our Cold Brew is smooth and rich, it’s very refreshing with chocolate and light citrus notes,” Starbucks Research and Development team’s Michelle Sundquist said.

And Starbucks is not the only company taking advantage of the cold brew coffee trend. Imbibe magazine picked the 13 best cold brew coffee offerings for the summer, and the list included players from subscription service Bear State’s single-origin cold brew, which is made through a 24-hour steeping process, to bottles of Secret Squirrel’s ready-to-drink or concentrated cold brew coffee offerings, which lend themselves well to coffee cocktails and allow consumers to dilute the beverages to their personal tastes.

Strother’s will continue innovating and capitalizing on the cold brew coffee trend, Holmes said, and the company is keeping an eye on other trends in the coffee segment, including bottled cold brewed coffee extract, nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee, hop-infused cold brew coffee and serving cold brew coffee hot.

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Last quarter, Panera Bread took No. 1 for the Top 25 National Restaurant Brands of Q1 2015. This month, the artificial-ban brand falls to No. 4, and is replaced by Chick-fil-A. Check out the Top 10 list below, where we also delve deeper into the Top 3. What caused the chicken chain to be on top? And what other players have entered the national field of top brands?

How it works

The RSMI, owned by digital agency DigitalCoCo, is a social media index with domain expertise that tracks five main elements — influence, sentiment, engagement, location-based actions and mobile — across 17 social media platforms. Currently, the Index tracks more than 188K restaurant industry keywords and more than 127M U.S. social restaurant consumers in over 430K locations. Learn more about how the Index works.

Top 10 Restaurant Brands: Q2 2015

Chick-fil-A: Chick-fil-A is one of those brands people seem to either love or hate. The chicken chain has been very vocal in the past about its conservative beliefs, but clearly, there’s been more positive brand buzz in Q2 than not considering the restaurant’s No. 1 position. Chick-fil-A also kicked off a strong Q3 with a lot of talk about its 11th Annual Cow Appreciation Day, where customers could score free food on July 14 if they dressed up like a cow.

At the end of Q1, Chick-fil-A rolled out a new Frosted Lemonade drink, a combination of fresh-squeezed lemonade and CFA’s Ice Dream soft serve (a once-secret mashup employees concocted for themselves). This new item rolled over into Q2 buzz. (A CFA store in Atlanta even filmed a rap video about it.) Other popular menu items in Q2 include Chick-fil-A’s grilled chicken nuggets, a peach milkshake and a grilled market salad. The brand has also been pushing a lot of expert-authored pieces on its Inside Chick-fil-A microsite, a digital native content platform for the brand, housing pieces like millennial leadership tips and outdoor entertaining tips.

Sonic Drive-In: June saw a lot of push for Sonic beverages with its “Celebrate Summer” campaign. The drive-in brand offered a deal on energy drinks before 10 a.m., half-off shakes after 8 p.m., and 79-cent slushes on June 24. At the beginning of June, NBA player Kevin Durant was featured in a commercial spot for Sonic’s new candy slushes. More mainstream media has been buzzing about Sonic, too, because it’s selling Kevin Durant’s actual slush — the one he drank out of: the candy, the straw and the liquid, all sold separately. In May, Sonic offered a corn dog deal (for 50 cents) to celebrate National End of School Day, and half-price cheeseburgers all day on April 15 for Tax Day. In Q2, the brand also rolled out mobile games for kids to entertain themselves with. The combination of celebrity, new funky flavors and tons of deals puts Sonic at No. 2.

Chipotle: In Q2, Chipotle reaffirmed its brand message by announcing the removal of all GMOs throughout its ingredient list. Chipotle became the first national restaurant company to use only non-GMO ingredients. Also in Q2, the fast-casual chain announced a scholarship program where middle school and high school students could submit an essay about a memorable food experience. Ten winners would be granted a $20K scholarship and have their essays featured on cups and bags in Chipotle restaurants. The combination of sustainable practices and healthfulness, focus on community, and direct consumer engagement and interaction make Chipotle a strong Top 3 competitor.

Farmers, food retailers and restaurants serving fresh food have always had to keep an eye on the weather and that’s never been truer than today, as California’s four-year drought drags on and a frigid winter and unseasonably cold spring in the Northeast brings later harvests for many crops.…

]]>Farmers, food retailers and restaurants serving fresh food have always had to keep an eye on the weather and that’s never been truer than today, as California’s four-year drought drags on and a frigid winter and unseasonably cold spring in the Northeast brings later harvests for many crops.

“The season’s about a month behind,” said Chelsea Strehse, one of three farm managers at Gravity Hill Farm in Titusville, N.J. “We got started on time with some things in our hoop houses, but the ground was still frozen in March.”

Photo: Janet Forgrieve

This week, the busy market boasted a bounty of fresh from the field fruits and veggies, including husk cherries, heirloom tomatoes, purple peppers and Asian eggplant.

Since the cool spring turned to hot, wet summer, different crops are reacting in different ways, she said. “It’s a great year for eggplants. They like it being hotter, and they’re holding up really well.”

The rain, on the other hand, is making it more challenging to grow the state’s famous tomatoes. Gravity Hill grows more than 20 varieties, four of which are available now. The frequent rain keeps the ground wet, raising the prospects for weeds and the pests and diseases they can bring, she said.

Gravity Hill is a 5-acre organic farm and farmer’s market that launched seven years ago. A growing number of the customers are drawn to the seasonal market because they’re seeking out local produce, she said, and many are open to trying exotic new fruits and veggies.

Local food sales hit $11.7 billion last year, up from $5 billion in 2008, according to the Agriculture Department, and the the words “local” and “locally” were on 11.3% of U.S. restaurant menus last year, according to Datassential.

Local produce is increasingly important to Mad Greens, a Colorado-based fast-casual salad and sandwich concept that just opened its first two eateries outside its home state. With the opening of two new Arizona units, Mad Greens has forged relationships with two local growers and it’s seeking additional ones, said Co-CEO and Chief Strategy Officer Marley Hodgson.

“We’ve partnered with Buckeye, Arizona-based Duncan Family Farms and Phoenix-based Abby Lee Farms for some of our produce,” he said. “We are indeed searching for additional Arizona partners and we have some exciting prospects in the pipeline.”

It’s not usually possible or cost-effective for fast-growing chains to source the lion’s share of their produce locally year-round, but Mad Greens is looking to maximize its locally sourced ingredients and products.

“We don’t have a specific percentage target, but in the future we would love to be able to say at least 50% of our produce is sourced locally,” he said.

Local sourcing becomes more important each day that California’s drought drags on. The Golden State grows two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and a wide range of vegetables including lettuce, carrots, broccoli and asparagus. Drought-related agricultural losses this year are forecast to hit $2.7 billion, according to recent research by the University of California, Davis.

The drought hasn’t forced Mad Greens to significantly raise menu prices yet, but that may change, Hodgson said. “The longer this drought continues, the more its impacts will be felt. We’re expecting a 2-4% increase in fruit and vegetable prices this year, but as of right now the true financial impact has yet to be felt,” he said.

Marley HodgsonPhoto: Mad Greens

“We’ve always focused on local sourcing, but a major drought in such a centralized region responsible for growing a large percentage of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and tree nuts emphasizes the importance of local sourcing and trying to minimize the distance our food travels.”

A focus on local also allows chains to tweak their menus and cater to local tastes when it expands to new markets, and even have some fun with local folk tales, Hodgson said.

“[W]ith our Arizona-inspired Doc Holliday salad, the red grapes and the oranges are two ingredients that pay homage to Phoenix’s agriculture roots. The name of course, pays homage to the notorious gambler and gunfighter known best for the O.K. Corral showdown in Tombstone, Arizona.”

Have weird weather changes or California’s drought put more of a focus on local ingredients at your restaurant? Tell us about it in the comments.

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As soon as you walk into Nashville’s Pinewood Social, you’ll notice there are a variety of things to do and places to eat. Will it be a game of bowling today, or a quick dip in the pool, complete with an outdoor menu of mahi mahi tacos and churros?…

]]>As soon as you walk into Nashville’s Pinewood Social, you’ll notice there are a variety of things to do and places to eat. Will it be a game of bowling today, or a quick dip in the pool, complete with an outdoor menu of mahi mahi tacos and churros? Still more options to choose from: a coffee and tea stand, bocce ball, private karaoke rooms, and a lounge living room.

Similarly, when you walk into the Chicago French Market, perhaps you’ll visit an artisan producer festival, take the kids to visit the Easter bunny, sample gourmet truffles, or enjoy a live accordion concert.

Both hangout concepts like Pinewood Social and food halls like the Chicago French Market are examples of growing restaurant concepts that are blending food with experience. At hangout concepts, it’s about offering food with the addition of entertainment options to attract a wide range of consumers- whether it’s young families, foodies, or experience-seeking millennials. While hangouts may entice customers with Pac-Man or laser tag, food halls are creating a complete food experience by curating a selection of the area’s best producers and operators under one roof. At The Source in Denver, it’s not just the oak-fired menu at Acorn that might bring foot traffic into the food hall; customers can take a leisurely stroll through the food hall to peruse local gourmet foods and even meet the people responsible for sourcing their next meal. At Boxcar Coffee Roasters, customers are able to watch coffee beans being roasted, and at Meat Head Butcher Shop, customers can see their meat butchered on the spot.

Restaurants are no longer solely about the food — now, more than ever, they are social, interactive, and focused on building an experience for customers. Operators across the country are stepping up to grab their share of the segment — whether it’s Chicago-area Emporium Arcade Bar that specializes in its collection of unique games and offers dining options in the form of hosting local food trucks, or a food hall like Eataly that offers a massive Italian marketplace alongside stations that feature freshly-made pasta, wood-fired pizza, or hands-on cooking demonstrations.

Multi-concept entertainment emporiums offer a wealth of experiences

In Datassential’s May issue of Creative Concepts: Hangouts, we covered the growing segment of restaurant concepts encouraging diners to eat, drink, play, and hang out. Some experiential concepts that combine restaurants and arcades, often referred to as beercades, bring nostalgic arcade games like Mortal Kombat and Pac-Man together with chef-driven menus and stately bar and beverage programs. At Texas-based Barcadia, guests are encouraged to feed their “inner child,” both with a variety of arcade games and entertainment options and with creative riffs on classic comfort foods (think fried Oreos and triple cheese grilled cheese sandwiches).

And while there are several variations on the bar-arcade hybrid, there are also entertainment centers that combine dining with bowling, bocce ball, laser tag, tennis, and much more. At the newly-opened FTW in Chicago, there’s a wide range of 130-plus arcade and table top games along with mini-golf and a pub grub-focused menu accompanied by a craft beer bar. The newly-remodeled Chicago Athletic Association Hotel is a both a boutique hotel and a dining destination, complete with The Game Room, which offers entertainment options like shuffleboard, billiards, and a menu heavy on updated classics, from the root beer floats with house-made root beer to the duck sausage corn dogs.

Even traditional restaurants without bowling alleys or arcade games can enhance the guest experience by adding special events like trivia nights or stocking a few board games. Some operators may tweak their offerings to draw a wider net of consumers – tables set up like workspaces can attract clientele during the work day while afternoon food and drink specials could transition customers into staying for an evening meal. Now more than ever, operators are looking for ways to maximize their presence – whether it’s by adding entertainment options, revamping offerings to encourage more social dining, or collaborating with others to create one-stop-shop food halls.

Food halls create a social experience with a little bit of everything

There’s been a renewed fascination with food halls, the all-in-one produce and gourmet food shopping destinations that have been around since the early 1900s. In our issue of Creative Concepts: Food Halls, we reported that 65% of consumers have visited or would visit a food hall. There are several high-profile food halls currently in the works – celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain will open an eponymous international street food hall in New York City and the James Beard Public Market, slated for construction in 2016, will be the first food hall in Portland, OR.

There are also plenty of well-established and growing food halls across the country. At Brooklyn’s combination food and beer hall, Berg’n, customers can choose from a dozen drafts at the vintage bar, seating at rustic communal tables, as well as fare from food stalls. Ramen Burger, known for its ramen bun-burger creation, offers a variety of other trendy ramen mash-ups at the hall, such as ramen fries and ramen churros. Like many food halls, Berg’n hosts regular social events, such as DJ nights, outdoor flea markets, and “Book Cooks,” an interview and tasting series with popular cookbook authors.

In addition to being a one-stop-shop for a sampling of a city’s very best food offerings, food halls are also cultivating a social community – both for consumers and operators. While consumers can both peruse gourmet ingredients for at-home cooking as well as sit down for a fast casual bite with friends, business operators can also utilize food halls as a starting point to a full brick-and-mortar, while also learning and collaborating with fellow food stall owners.

Restaurants look to evolve beyond food

The evolution of restaurants moving towards a more experiential focus can already be seen throughout the industry. At Ponderosa Steakhouse’s spinoff concept, Bo’s Steak & Grill, nearly everything on the menu is made from scratch, with ingredients locally sourced — but that’s only one aspect to the restaurant’s appeal. The fast casual restaurant includes mismatched chairs around a fireplace, red Solo cups, and rustic décor designed to replicate the experience of relaxing at a backyard BBQ. And at up-and-coming supermarkets, customers aren’t just shopping for weekly groceries — they’re perusing food hall-inspired food stations with made-to-order food, learning how to create nutritional meals, grinding their own fresh nut butters, or sipping wine and eating fresh oysters at the in-store restaurant.

So whether it’s a sprawling food hall or restaurant/entertainment concept, operators are constantly tweaking their offerings to appeal to a wider range of consumers. As the industry evolves and competition increases, it’s no longer just about serving great food — but also about having a great social atmosphere and creating a complete experience that sets one operator apart from another.

Maeve Webster is the senior director of Datassential, a supplier of trends, analysis and concept testing for the food industry. To purchase the Creative Concepts: Food Halls or Creative Concepts: Hangouts TrendSpotting Reports mentioned in this article, contact Webster at 312-655-0596 or maeve@datassential.com

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The other day I was in the “ethnic” aisle at our local grocery store picking up some items I needed for a few home-cooked meals. As I strolled past the likes of Mission brand tortillas, Ortega salsa, Kikkoman soy sauce and Goya black beans, the experience at the shelf was unremarkable — that is, until I noticed the Taco Bell-branded taco shells.…

The other day I was in the “ethnic” aisle at our local grocery store picking up some items I needed for a few home-cooked meals. As I strolled past the likes of Mission brand tortillas, Ortega salsa, Kikkoman soy sauce and Goya black beans, the experience at the shelf was unremarkable — that is, until I noticed the Taco Bell-branded taco shells. I had seen them before, but this time, for some reason, I paused. I was in the ethnic aisle. And there was Taco Bell. In the ethnic aisle. Taco Bell. Ethnic? I found myself contemplating the whole Venn diagram of ethnicity and branding in U.S. retail today — and the way our thinking around these issues can create unnecessary redundancy and confusion.

For starters, this is America. Aren’t we all ethnic? The globalization of cuisine doesn’t just affect major metro areas. This is a national trend. After all, you’re just as likely to find Chipotle in Murfreesboro, Tenn., as in Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. Meanwhile, Chinese and Japanese restaurants are in small-town strip malls across the country. In the U.S., believe it or not, salsa outsells ketchup, and tortillas outsell white bread. Did I not just hear a sriracha reference in “Pitch Perfect 2?”

What makes tacos ethnic and spaghetti not ethnic? In a Whole Foods in New York City, seaweed snacks were recently moved from the ethnic aisle to the snack aisle. If seaweed can live next to granola bars, can’t soy sauce live next to hot sauce? This is an issue for retailers, who are creating redundancies around the store. There’s so much pressure on making every square foot count, and yet ethnic aisles include items such as beans, soda, rice, oils and spices. Why double-merchandise? Meat, dairy and produce are grouped, and consumers seem to understand the rationale just fine. Although they come from various climates and geographies around the world, I don’t find it confusing or inconvenient that bananas, corn, mangoes, avocados and apples can all be found in the same area.

Greater exposure — bringing more shoppers and families into the mix, regardless of ethnic identity, and exposing them to additional tastes and foods — is the missed opportunity here for brands. In a word, that means missed sales. In my local Shoprite, you can only find sriracha in the ethnic aisle, and yet sriracha is trending. Its sales have skyrocketed in recent years. There’s no doubt that families staying in center store and looking for hot sauce options should see these “ethnic” options as well. Food is universal. It’s a win for brands and retailers.

Why would Goya not want to compete with all of the other major brands? Couldn’t Goya win on authenticity and flavor with many audiences outside of its target consumers? Wouldn’t the same be true for other brands stuck in the ethnic aisle? Won’t more exposure lead to more interest, more recipes and more sales? It makes me think of the Apple brand. Apple used to be an exclusive club, meant for creatives and other cool tech folks who wanted to think differently. Well, Apple did a great job of saturating that market and decided that in order to grow, it needed to expand its customer base and appeal to a wider audience. Apple’s ads, messaging and product design went from edgy to functional. The brand transformed itself from an exclusive club into everyone’s favorite Mother’s Day gift. Huge financial growth ensued.

Along the same lines, salsa, sriracha and soy sauce should be allowed to rub elbows with the rest of the condiments we all hold dear. Enough with the ethnic-aisle redundancies. Let taco shells and tortillas go head-to-head with bread. Let rice be with rice, olives with olives, spices with spices, and beans with beans.

Dave Weinberger is vice president and director of engagement at CBX, the brand agency and retail design consultancy. Reach him at dave@cbx.com and @weinbergerdave.

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Cashew nuts are soaring in popularity in the U.S. as snackers seek healthier options, and industry experts expect demand to grow further as snack brands include the nuts in new products and the ongoing drought in California drives up the price of almonds.…

Cashew nuts are soaring in popularity in the U.S. as snackers seek healthier options, and industry experts expect demand to grow further as snack brands include the nuts in new products and the ongoing drought in California drives up the price of almonds.

In the U.S., they’re increasingly used in plant-based milks and as a base for vegan cheeses, creams, nut butters and desserts like Cashew Milk Frozen Dessert from So Delicious. They’re also part of a growing roster of new products, from mixes by Sahale Snacks to cereals and granolas in Kellogg’s new Origins line to TGI Friday’s branded Happy Hour Snack Mixes.

Cashews make up half of all the tree nuts imported by the U.S, according to the Agriculture Department, and the country imports more of India’s cashew nuts than any other country, taking in 33,898 metric tons last year, up 13% from the previous season, according to the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India.

Cashew trees originated in Brazil and were spread to new lands by the Portuguese about 500 years ago. They now grow in 32 countries where conditions are warm and humid enough for them to thrive in the wild, which means they don’t require all the irrigation and labor that go into growing almonds, pistachios and other water-intensive tree nuts, said K. Sasi Varma, executive director and secretary of the council. He and three of the council’s 230 member companies were on hand at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City last month.

As California’s drought drags on and almond prices rise, cashews are growing less expensive by comparison, he said, and there’s an adequate supply because they grow in so many different parts of the world, including Vietnam, Nigeria, Brazil and Indonesia.

“Even though India is the largest [by acreage], there’s not one region that dominates.”

Cashew nuts grow on trees, attached to a colorful fruit sometimes called a cashew apple. The nuts are the same no matter where they’re grown, but they may taste different from one country to the next depending on the way they’re processed, Varma said. “In India, they’re mostly fire-roasted. In that kind of processing the shell catches fire, that’s different from how they’re processed in Vietnam, for example.”

In developing cashew-growing countries, the nuts provide a source of economic development. It takes five or six years for new trees to bear fruit, and once they do they can be productive for as long as 35 years, Varma said.

The fruits are used in juices popular in Brazil and in an alcoholic beverage called Feni that’s made exclusively in Goa, India, they’re most often discarded during processing, said Ganesh Nair, president of Dublin, Calif.-based cashew seller Karma.

In addition to raw and roasted nuts, Karma’s newest product is Wrapped Cashews, which are air roasted with their skins on, which gives them a toasty crunch and doubles the fiber content. The roasting process is minimal, and it reduces the tannins which takes the natural bitterness out of the skin.

With or without their skins, the nuts are high in calories but also high in fiber, protein and several essential vitamins and minerals, according to USDA data.

“We haven’t made health claims yet, but we’re doing further research into the effects of antioxidants so we have more data to back up what we believe are the health benefits,” Nair said.

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“We need to build a mobile app,” is one of the most terrifying phrases that I’ve heard uttered over the past six months. Far too often, brands jump into building an app simply to check the box and without a thoughtful strategy in mind.…

“We need to build a mobile app,” is one of the most terrifying phrases that I’ve heard uttered over the past six months. Far too often, brands jump into building an app simply to check the box and without a thoughtful strategy in mind. Deciding to “go mobile” with no purpose is like deciding to go fishing without a fishing pole: success is highly unlikely without hooks.

The impulse to go mobile is understandable, with more than 75% of mobile subscribers owning a smartphone and the average smartphone user reaching for his mobile phone 150 times a day (or far more in my case). Yes, not having a mobile app in 2015 is the equivalent of not having had a website in 2000. But I cringe when I hear marketers talk about mobile apps as nothing more than another “engagement” tool that simply replace the engagement tools of old. More often than not, marketers view the smartphone as nothing more than a screen that lots of people have and like to look at or a new form factor for a plastic card or a sheet of paper.

And so, it’s no surprise that many marketers gravitate towards mobile app framework companies that promise to build them mobile apps, without any specific expertise in a utility that is meaningful to restaurant guests. These mobile app framework companies seem content with overpromising and under-delivering when it comes to utility, failing to deliver a compelling user experience and thus failing to deliver a meaningful return on the restaurant brand’s investment.

The smartphone is so much more than a screen or a replacement for a plastic card or a sheet of paper. The smartphone is identifiable, contactable, interactive, web-enabled, location-aware and commerce-ready. The smartphone provides restaurant brands with a new way to do business with their loyal guests, enabling greater hospitality through enhanced service models that make the guest experience faster, more accurate, and more personal. The smartphone empowers the guest to order and pay from everywhere and the restaurant to accept orders and payments from everywhere.

When restaurant brands come to Olo to build a mobile app, it’s always with this kind of reimagined service model in mind. Brands come to Olo to deploy a multi-channel digital ordering platform (call center, desktop web, mobile web, mobile app, and whatever comes next!) as the core of the mobile app experience. The restaurant brand then has a choice to make: 1) have Olo build the mobile app or 2) have a digital agency build the mobile app, utilizing Olo’s API for ordering-as-a-service. When restaurant brands want additional utilities (e.g. loyalty) incorporated into their mobile apps, they may want to choose the second option. Digital agencies like Bottle Rocket, Chaotic Moon, Push, Fueled, Fuzz Productions and Solertium are all solid partners to serve as mobile app developers, building on top of utility partner API’s to deliver a stellar mobile app experience.

If your brand is thinking about “going mobile” or is stuck working with a mobile app framework company that’s incapable of adding the utilities to your mobile app that will make it worth a guest downloading and using, it’s time to rethink. To quote author and speaker Simon Sinek, “start with why.” Why do you need to build a mobile app? What’s your brand’s purpose in going mobile? What’s the key utility that you’re hoping to provide? What would make you want to download your own app, if you truly think like one of your loyal guests?

Decide on the utility that you want in your mobile app first and pursue relationships with best-of-breed utility players that can provide your brand with the utilities you need. Then talk to your utility provider partners about who they recommend build your mobile app. That’s the cleanest and clearest way to create a mobile app that your guests will love and one that will generate a meaningful return on your investment, not just check a box.

Noah Glass is the Founder & CEO of Olo. Since 2005, Olo has helped restaurant brands increase revenue per square foot by delivering faster, more accurate, and more personal service through digital ordering. Today, over 10 million consumers use the Olo platform to order ahead and Skip the Line at the restaurants they love.

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